2018 Films: #3. The Outsider

A Netflix original viewed April 5th on a flight from Los Angeles to Chicago. I came across this title while searching for something to watch with my wife. I happen to be sucker for Yakuza films. When the opportunity presented itself, I took a swing.

The film takes place in 1950's Japan and an American (Jared Leto) serving time in a Japanese prison, saves the life of a Yakuza higher up, Tadanobu Asano, and gets rewarded with his freedom. He soon goes to work for Kiyoshi's clan, the Shiromatsu. Nick does some low level muscle work and starts to work his way up the corporate ladder. The Shiromatsu are being pushed out by the Seizu clan because they're stubborn and are not adapting to the changing world. Things escalate between the two clans with tensions coming to a head when the Shiromatsu are betrayed and ambushed at the docks resulting in the deaths of  Kiyoshi and the leader of the clan. Nick is wounded and is allowed to leave with the few remaining Shiromatsu loyalists. Nick takes it upon himself to head off the the Seizu dojo to kill the traitor. Which he does.

This film received a 20% Rotten Tomatoes rating, which seems a little low. It's not an awful film but it's not that great. There are more than a few plot lines that are lifted from Black Rain, The Last Samurai and any Takeshi "Beat" Kitano film. It turns out that Kiyoshi has a sister, Miyu (Shioli Kutsuna) and Nick is jut a little more that infatuated with her. Kiyoshi sees this and forbids Nick from hooking up with her but lo and behold, that's exactly what happens.

There are some redeeming scenes but I never bought that pretty boy Jared Leto could work his way into a high ranking position in a Japanese crime family. He was a pasty American for crying out loud. Plus, the biggest problem is that the film moves too slow. It has a two hour run time I got bored for some short stretches. The Nick/Miyu affair was too drawn out for being obvious that they were going to hook up. It was also obvious that the Shirmatsu clan was going to lose and that Nick was going to kill the traitor. He wasn't just going to go home and call it a day.